Effectiveness of Mobile Learning in Enhancing Saudi English Majors’ Skills in Learning Vowels

Abstract

Learning Phonetics, particularly the transcription of the vowel sounds, is one of the challenges that non-native English majors face. It can be best learned using images and videos as supplementary materials in the phonetics class in addition to the teacher’s live demonstration. Mobile pronunciation applications encompass all these features and provide an affordable and accessible resource for learning. The present study investigates the effect of using a pronunciation application on non-native Saudi students majoring in English at Majmaah University. The study provides insights on how mobile learning can be an effective tool for both English instructors and learners in teaching and learning vowels. A Pretest–posttest design was adopted in the present case study and descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied. The results indicated that short vowels are more challenging to the learners than long vowels and diphthongs. Findings also revealed that there is a significant difference between the learners’ performance before and after using the application which indicated the positive effect of using it in developing non-native learners’ skills in learning Phonetics.